Pasture, Rangeland and Forage (PRF) Insurance Enrollment Closes December 1.

Those producers who have grazing and/or forage production as a part of your operation may consider Pasture, Rangeland and Forage (PRF) insurance as part of a production risk management strategy. Our colleague, Mike Estadt, Extension Educator, Pickaway County, introduced our readers to the product in this article in November 2021. Extension Livestock Marketing Specialists Dr. Kenny Burdine (Unv. of Kentucky) and James Mitchell (Unv. of Arkansas) have since discussed PRF insurance here: Burdine and Mitchell.

This article shall serve as a quick review of the insurance product. PRF is a single-peril (rainfall only) and area-based insurance product. It covers less than average rainfall levels in a particular grid up to the level of coverage that a farmer selects. Normal rainfall and deviations from normal rainfall are measured through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Prediction Center (NOAA CPC). Area-based means that indemnity payments will not be based upon individual producer’s experience, rather, payments will be based upon a grid’s deviation from historically normal rainfall. A producer will have to make several choices including the coverage level of forage production they wish to insure, the rainfall index (months of precipitation), the productivity level of the field or fields they wish to enroll and the number of acres they wish to insure.

To sign up or find out more about this product, we encourage you to first meet with your crop insurance agent (we are not insurance agents). If you do not already have an insurance agent, the United State Department of Agriculture-Risk Management Association (USDA-RMA) has an agent locator which may be helpful.

Second, you will want to make sure your pastures, rangelands, or forage (hay) fields have a farm serial number (FSN) at the local Farm Service Agency office (ie. you have reported your crop acres by the required deadlines). Those reported acres will allow you to identify the grid in which your FSN is located. Furthermore, and unlike many other crop insurance policies, you only need enroll a portion of your reported acres. For example, if you only want to enroll 10 acres out of 100 total alfalfa acres, you can. Total reported PRF acres will limit your maximum enrollment.

Source: osu.edu

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